Various types of machinery are subject to vibration which can loosen nuts and bolts. Safety wire has long been used as protection to resist such loosening. In such use, safety wire secures two or more parts together so that loosening of one part is counteracted by tightening of the wire. Typically, a single wire is passed through an aperture in a nut or bolt, the free ends twisted together up to another part, one of the ends inserted through an aperture in the another part and the ends again twisted. The standards for utilization of safety wire are critical and are set forth in Aerospace Standard AS567, entitled "General Practices for the Use of Lockwire, Key Washers and Cotter Pins," available from the Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., 400 Commonwealth Dr., Warrendale, Pa.
Safety wire or lockwire, as it is sometimes known, has several known problems. More recently, there has been developed an improved locking system using safety cable. Safety cable is a stranded cable having a termination on one end allowing the cable to be pulled to a predetermined tension through the aforementioned apertures in nuts and bolts. After tensioning, the free end of the cable must be terminated to hold the tension and cleanly severed to minimize any possibility of snags on loose wires. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a tool which simultaneously crimps a ferrule onto the cable and severs the free end of the cable while establishing a predetermined tension in the cable. Further, safety cable is utilized on bolts and fasteners which are often located in cramped or minimally accessible locations. Positioning of the tool in such locations may require rotation of the tool into awkward or even impossible positions. Accordingly, it is also desirable to provide a tool which is adaptable to apply ferrules in different angular orientations.